At 3 AM, Mateo was asleep. He had school tomorrow. He knew he would have to wake early, whether he wanted to or not, and he wanted to start the next day with a good night's sleep.
Mateo was actually pretty good at falling asleep. It took practice.
He first closed his eyes and lay comfortably in bed. He lies there for a minute. He listens to the same song every night during this stage. It was called "Moon River". He had started doing that a year or so ago, and now every note was familiar and comforting.
If something was really bothering him, he wrote it down on a little notepad he kept by his bed. Sometimes he wrote a little plan to deal with it tomorrow.
Then he started by relaxing his mouth. He let his jaw relax, his tongue, then the rest of his face. He continued with his legs, arms, and the rest of his body. It was easier for him if he flexed them first, so he could tell the difference.
When everything was relaxed, he closed his eyes. Some nights he would imagine a relaxing scene, rain out the window, a peaceful river, a quiet meadow. Some nights that was hard to focus on. On nights like that, he just thought "don't think, don't think, don't think..." in his head. Sometimes he would count backwards. Or imagine a snowman melting. When his thoughts insisted on wandering, he let them, kind of. He didn't chase after any particular thought, it was more like he was watching them pass.
To be honest, it didn't work for Mateo all the time. Sometimes he couldn't stop fidgeting. Sometimes he was crying. Sometimes he had to do homework. Sometimes he even chose to stay awake, longing for the quiet hours the night yielded.
It was always worth at least trying to sleep. He wouldn't fall asleep if he wasn't in bed, with his eyes closed, that much he knew.
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Its 3 AM and Life Feels Strange
Fiksi RemajaWritten about different characters, overlapping in varying degrees. These stories are written alone in a dark room. The mood changes wildly from each one, and the stories and about completely different circumstances. All of them connect with the st...
